AMERICANIZATION: 


CALIFORNIA’S ANSWER 


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Issued by the 

Commission of Immigration and Housing 

of Caliiornia 

n 

525 Market Street, San Francisco 


JUNE 1, 1920 




CALIFORNIA STATE PRINTING OFFICE 
SACRAMENTO 
19 2 0 


3929 



COMMISSION OF IMMIGRATION AND HOUSING 

OF CALIFORNIA. 

Underwood Building 
525 Market Street, San Francisco 

BRANCH OFFICES : 

Los Angeles — 

526 Union League Building, Second and Hill streets 
Fresno — 

227 Rowell Building. 

Sacramento — 

419 Forum Building. 

Stockton — 

Council Chamber, City Hall. 

Bakersfield — 

Arlington Building. 


COMMISSIONERS. 

SIMON J. LUBIN, President -Sacramento 

MOST REV. EDWARD J. HANNA, D.D., Vice President _*_San Francisco 

MRS. FRANK A. GIBSON_Los Angeles 

J. H. McBRIDE, M.D_,_Pasadena 

PAUL SCHARRENBERG, Secretary --San Francisco 


R. Justin Miller, Attorney and Executive Officer. 


of B. 

ZQ 1U20 


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AMERICANIZATION: CALIFORNIA’S ANSWER. 


The State of California has undertaken a program of Americanization 
to be carried out through methods of community organization. This 
program is not the task of a few months, but that of years. The time 
for mere impulsive Americanization has gone by. If the creation of 
community organization is done hurriedly, done in a forced way, it is 
not done at all. Hundreds of thousands of individuals in California 
must participate, thousands of local communities must enter into the 
state-wide endeavor, before the Americanization program can be con¬ 
sidered fully launched. 

Yet, since the definite beginning of the movement in November, 1919, 
California has made some discoveries and produced some results, which, 
as they are the basis for planning the future in this state, may serve to 
point the way for other states with similar problems. 

The endeavor in California, pioneered by the State Commission of 
Immigration and Housing, is now jointly maintained by that Commis¬ 
sion, the State Board of Education, and the Extension Division of the 
State University. These three agencies are united in the California 
State Committee for Americanization. Under its general auspices rests 
the leadership in the organization of local communities, the develop¬ 
ment of a system of adult education in English and citizenship, and 
the training of Americanization and community workers. 

WHAT IS COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION? 

Community Organization means the organization of all the forces in 
a community. It includes: 

1. Democratic organization of the citizens by neighborhoods, for 
effective participation in and control of their community life, and 
the broadening of that life. 

2. Extension, creation and union of social facilities and agencies, for 
discovering and meeting the community’s need. 

Some of the conclusions thus far attained may be briefly stated as 
follows: 

1. Foreign-born peoples respond generously to an effort for Ameri¬ 
canization when their own organizations and individual leaders are 
enlisted jointly with American-born citizens in the work of community 
development. 

2. Such development can be pursued in one way only—through 
neighborhood organizations, necessarily of slow growth, whose members 
discover their own community wants and devise their own ways of 
action. 


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3. This free development of neighborhood life nevertheless requires 
some leadership from outside the neighborhood. Community leadership 
is a new profession as well as a new avocation, and the finding and 
training of leaders is the first and hardest task in any movement for 
Americanization or citizenship. 

4. Essential to the neighborhood organization, especially in its 
younger stages, is the assistance in social service which may be rendered 
by coordinated social agencies, public and private. This coordination 
of social agencies should be brought about within local neighborhoods. 

Local community organizations are the true mainsprings of citizen¬ 
ship work. Accordingly, they can never be stereotyped in their 
activities or their procedure. They start differently, and their parlia¬ 
mentary devices vary. Yet in every case three principles have been 
apparent: 

(a) The neighborhood organization must include local residents 
irrespective of sex, creed or party. -This of itself implies a consider¬ 
able range of activities within the group. 

(b) Social agencies working in the locality must unite, in order that 
their programs may be presented to the people simply and intelligibly, 
and in order that the people may utilize their services to the full. 

(c) The several local community organizations must be brought into 
touch with one another through a permanent ‘ £ overhead ’ ’ organization, 
enabling them to interchange talent, to learn from each other, and to 
act together. This organization ultimately should be supported and 
controlled by the community groups which it serves. 

None of the above conclusions are strictly original to California, but 
it is possible that no other state has undertaken an Americanization 
work as wide as its boundaries, intended to develop through years, fully 
embodying these principles. Each detail is planned with a view to the 
large outcome wherein not a few but all persons, rich and poor, in 
country and city, and of whatever race, will be united toward the 
upholding of the state and the development of a creative common life. 

NECESSITY FOR LEADERSHIP. 

When the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, in April, 1919, 
issued its bulletin presented by the California Commission of Immigra¬ 
tion and Housing, and entitled, ££ A Suggested Program for American¬ 
ization,” the human error was committed of leaping ahead of the 
facts and taking for granted certain matters which, on experience, 
developed difficulties. 

Seminars in women’s clubs, for example, for the training of 
Americanization workers, seemed quite simple. But it soon became 


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evident that seminars could not succeed, because there were few or no 
persons of competence to lead them. Americanization work could not 
progress until leaders themselves were trained. 

Another difficulty—indeed, an emergency—grew out of a piece of 
legislation typical of the period of the armistice. This was a law 
establishing compulsory part-time classes in citizenship, to be attended 
by all persons under twenty-one whose English was below the sixth- 
grade standard. The law, in effect, required a night shift of teachers 
with peculiar training; but there were few such teachers, nor were 
there facilities for training such teachers, within the state. 

For three years the Commission of Immigration and Housing had 
employed a director of immigrant education. After certain prelimi¬ 
nary conferences, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction was 
enabled to avail himself of the services of this qualified official, who 
was appointed Assistant State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
charged with immigrant education and the carrying out of the new law. 

Thus occurred the first merger between two state agencies, looking 
forward to a comprehensive Americanization policy. 

Private organizations, meanwhile, had begun to plan for Americaniza¬ 
tion work, but lacked trained leaders. 

AMERICANIZATION INSTITUTES. 

The first need, clearly, was for the education of leaders. The 
Commission of Immigration and Housing and the State Board of 
Education jointly applied to the University of California for extension 
courses through which this training might be provided. The State 
Board of Education offered a new certificate, that of “Teacher of 
Americanization,” to persons of adequate prior attainment who should 
successfully complete these courses. The University offered credit 
toward graduation. “Americanization Institutes” were arranged, the 
first to take place in Los Angeles. The direction of the Institutes was 
under John Collier of New York City and Miss Ethel Richardson, 
assistant superintendent of public instruction of California. 

The Institutes, from the first day, combined theory with practice. 
The subject matter included: 

Lectures on past experience in community organization. 

The teaching of English and citizenship. 

Problems of industrial adjustment and the economic cooperative 
movement. 

The administration of recreation, health, welfare work; the 
development of self-support and self-government in community 
work; and the methods of using inexpert volunteers in public 
service. 

Analysis of local institutions and population groups in the 
various cities where Institutes were held. 


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STATE COMMITTEE FOR AMERICANIZATION. 

The State Committee for Americanization grew out of the unofficial 
joining of forces between the three state agencies that sponsored the 
Los Angeles and subsequent Institutes. This committee has the follow¬ 
ing personnel: 

Chairman, Simon J. Lubin, President of the Commission of Immigra¬ 
tion and Housing. 

Mrs. Frank A. Gibson, Commissioner of Immigration and Housing, 
and Americanization Chairman of the General and the California 
Federations of Women’s Clubs. 

Will C. Wood, State Superintendent of Public Instruction. 

E. P. Clarke, President of the State Board of Education. 

Professor Leon J. Richardson, Extension Director, University of 
California. 

Professor Frederic C. Blanchard, Assistant Extension Director. 

After the third or San Francisco Institute, Governor William D. 
Stephens issued the following proclamation: 

To the people of California: 

The three departments of the state government whose work covers 
the field of Americanization and immigrant education—that is, the 
State Board of Education, the University of California, and the 
Commission of Immigration and Housing—have formed a joint 
committee, to be known as the California Committee of Public 
Agencies for Americanization. It will be the function of this 
committee to coordinate the work of the three departments in 
Americanization and to prevent overlapping and duplication of 
effort. 

Such work will be of great value to the State of California, but 
the usefulness of this committee will be very greatly increased if 
it can also secure the cooperation of the many semipublic and 
private organizations which have interested themselves in Ameri¬ 
canization and community organization. 

I bespeak for this committee the support and cooperation of all 
of the state departments, of all organizations, public and private, 
and of all public-spirited citizens of the state. 

William D. Stephens, 

Governor of California. 

GROWTH OF COMMUNITY IDEA. 

Six Americanization Institutes have been held under the leadership 
of John Collier and other specialists drawn from within and without 
the state. With each successive Institute a more direct result in 
community organization lias been attained. Each Institute, in addition 
to its work of training leaders, has been in increased degree the inaug¬ 
uration of a community movement. Each has increasingly demon- 


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strated the practicability of informal methods, and the use of local 
leaders for the training of other local leaders. A brief record of the 
Institutes will therefore partly tell the story of California’s developing 
Americanization program. 

The Los Angeles Institute began November 1, 1919, and continued 
five weeks. Its main object, as stated, was to train school teachers, 
and others, for work with foreign-born groups. Field work played an 
important part, and out of this field work the method of community 
organization began to take form. 

Students, assigned to various districts of the city, made studies of 
the social life of immigrants, the use of leisure time by young and old, 
economic cooperation as carried on within certain immigrant groups, 
the facilities for the improvement of health, etc. From these studies, 
discussed at round-table meetings, came the general agreement that 
neighborhood organization was the best means toward Americanization 
and in a sense the object of Americanization. This organization would 
involve a fuller mobilization of residents, adult and juvenile, around the 
school, for the more general use of the public facilities for health, recrea¬ 
tion and study. Such groups would altogether outstrip the formal 
classes as mediums for the learning of English and citizenship, and in 
addition would work for the betterment of living standards and the 
development of talent. Foreign-born and native-born people alike 
would participate more generally in American life and each would 
contribute to the interest of the community. 

COORDINATION OF AGENCIES. 

A second aspect of community organization was made evident in 
the second Institute, held at Fresno. This was the coordination of 
social agencies, public and semipublic, into a joint city committee to 
sponsor the neighborhood groups. The earliest demand in Fresno was 
for improved health facilities, and'organization in that city has begun 
around the idea of health. The completion of a health survey, the 
partial completion of a housing survey, and the maintenance of a child 
health center, have been the outstanding features thus far in the Fresno 
program. This development illustrates the point that each place, 
according to its own desires, will approach organization from a different 
angle. The large development in Fresno will begin with the autumn 
of the present year, 1920. 

In the third Institute, at San Francisco, the school was from the 
outset predominant. A committee of school principals and teachers 
was appointed to foster and observe community organization in a chosen 
district. The city board of health, which was planning a new system 
of health centers, was added to the group. Private social agencies, 


— 8 — 


being of strongly developed individuality, were slower to respond, but 
today are eagerly cooperating. Assistance is being rendered by the 
Community Service Recreation League. Neighborhood organization 
is developing in a district of mixed population, strangely lacking in 
organized social work. The results, after a month of beginnings, are 
already encouraging. 

Different yet was the process in Oakland, where the fourth Institute 
was held. Here the Americanization Committee of the Chamber of 
Commerce had effected a coordination of about forty public and private 
agencies interested in Americanization. This body sponsored the Insti¬ 
tute. A district rich in racial groups—including most of the important 
European peoples—was selected, and organization was begun imme¬ 
diately. The interplay between this demonstration and the Institute 
finally established that the theoretical teaching should not precede, but 
accompany, the actual work of community organization. 

INTER-CITY COORDINATION. 

Joint action between the several cities around San Francisco Bay 
was also inaugurated through the Oakland Institute. The definite 
purpose is the compilation of data in regard to the resources of the 
Bay region—governmental, physical, recreational, industrial. Ameri¬ 
canization and community workers of Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley 
and Alameda are assembling this information, and experimenting as 
to its use in helping the immigrant toward successful participation in 
American life, social and economic. The data, when assembled, will be 
installed in branch libraries and other centers, where it will be available 
to all community groups, teachers, social workers and others. 

A brief Institute was held by the State Americanization Committee 
at Sacramento. Here an Americanization Council has been formed, 
the members of which have conferred frequently with the Institute 
leaders. The first local demonstration, just being inaugurated, con¬ 
sists of a community council in two contiguous school districts. The 
demonstration involves these districts, a city park playground, and the 
cooperation of the school department, playground commission, Red 
Cross, and many other agencies, public and private. The demonstra¬ 
tion will be a responsibility of the local residents, at whose request alone 
will any service be inaugurated. 

The fifth demonstration is just beginning in Los Angeles. This, it 
will be noted, was the city of the first Institute. Enthusiasm was 
created, then a gap of several months ensued in which time no definite 
organization was effected. Later experience suggested the holding of 
a second Institute, four weeks in duration, with attendance limited to 
practical social workers already in the field. Demonstrations have been 


9 — 


undertaken in two neighborhoods in connection with this course. One 
of these neighborhoods is wholly American and the other almost wholly 
immigrant. 

NEIGHBORHOOD INDIVIDUALITY. 

In Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles, the neigh¬ 
borhood demonstrations are sponsored by Americanization or Com¬ 
munity Organization Committees, city-wide in their character. These 
committees, when the initial demonstrations are well under way, will 
be in a position to extend the work to new districts. 

The choice of initial activities made by the people in the various 
demonstrations further emphasizes the need that the program of the 
group shall not be imposed but self-determined, and that for best 
results such programs shall vary. The first community council in 
Oakland, for instance, asked first for an information bureau and then 
that its night class in English should be continued through the summer, 
and that the playground should be lighted for evening games, with 
supervision for the evening and Sunday hours. In San Francisco, the 
neighborhood spoke for a mothers ’ club, a social club for working girls, 
and a branch library under the charge of a person capable of directing 
drama. At Fresno, as stated, the health idea is more or less predomi¬ 
nant. At Sacramento, the school facilities suggested dramatic and 
recreational work. Community organization may begin equally well 
from any of these approaches. 

EDUCATION BY WOMEN’S CLUBS. 

General propaganda in behalf of community organization has been 
made possible throughout the state through the eager cooperation of 
many state bodies. The annual program of the State Conference of 
Social Agencies was largely dominated by the community idea. The 
five hundred units of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs fur¬ 
nished, through their weekly meetings, the best possible opportunity 
for public education. 

The single most brilliant contribution of this nature was accomplished 
in the San Joaquin district of the California Federation of Women’s 
Clubs, under the general leadership of the district president. Seven 
county federations called conventions at their respective county seats, 
on consecutive days beginning April 24. By request of the State 
Superintendent of Public Instruction, the county superintendents 
closed the schools on the respective days, and requested the teachers 
to assemble with the clubs at the county seats. A team of speakers, 
authorities upon social and physical education, Americanization (includ¬ 
ing recreation and community organization), legislation, and thrift, 
were transported from county to county; in each they held an all-day 


— 10 — 


session, introducing subjects which were discussed and developed by 
the audience. In one day, two counties were covered by reversing the 
morning and afternoon halves of the program and speeding up the 
transportation. The audiences varied from 300 to 1000, and the entire 
public of the San Joaquin Valley was reached through the press. 

Not only was this unique experiment successful as propaganda, but 
a fine spirit was developed throughout the district. Teachers and club 
women of these seven counties now understand, as never before, their 
duty to each other and to the community; confusion of thought was 
cleared up and an interdependence developed that assures concerted 
and thoughtful action by the schools and clubs on a sane program of 
Americanization. 

At these meetings, the following resolution was discussed and 
adopted: 

Whereas, The organization of education for the adult is a 
special problem; and 

Whereas, There is a law on the statute books of California 
requiring the teaching of citizenship to aliens between the ages of 
18 and 21 who can not speak, read or write the English language 
with sixth-grade proficiency; be it 

Resolved, That the_County Federation of 

Women’s Clubs endorse the Americanization program of the three 
state agencies which are combined for Americanization work; and 
be it further 

Resolved, That the women here present urge their high school 
principals or city superintendents to provide in their budgets for 
the coming year for the adequate carrying out of this law; and 
be it further 

Resolved, That high school principals and city superintendents 
be urged to appoint one member of their respective staffs, interested 
and sympathetic toward the problems of the foreign born, to draw 
up an Americanization program adapted to the local needs. 

Other districts of the California Federation of Women’s Clubs are 
projecting similar conferences for the future. 

SCHOOL AMERICANIZATION PROGRAM. 

The State Board of Education, one of the three agencies comprising 
the State Committee for Americanization, is carrying out four distinct 
lines of activity in California schools, all bearing on the work of 
community organization. 

1. Each of the eight state normal schools has appointed one faculty 
member to serve as extension director. These directors will help and 
advise the teacher who is unqualified for her task in a foreign commu¬ 
nity. These extension directors will assemble soon at Sacramento for a 
two days’ intensive conference on methods of teacher training. There- 




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after they will be kept in close touch with the staff of the State Com¬ 
mittee for Americanization, and assist the Americanization teachers 
in their own districts. 

2. Schools attended largely by children of foreign birth or parentage 
are being visited by state workers, who assist the teachers to the end 
that their instruction may take, as far as possible, the form of group 
activity, with a view to the later development of community organization. 

3. All high school principals, three hundred in number, have been 
asked by the Assistant Superintendent of Public Instruction to do 
three things: (a) To state what budget provisions are being made for 
part-time Americanization classes for the coming school year; ( b ) to 
appoint, as director of Americanization, some teacher who, preferably, 
has attended an Americanization Institute; (c) to encourage the devel¬ 
opment of group activity in the part-time classes, and the use by the 
neighborhood of the school plant. 

.4. A new organization has been formed, with chapters in several 
counties—‘the California Association of Americanization Teachers. 
These groups are studying the broader ideas of Americanization, 
devising plans for a greater amount of neighborhood work by the 
schools, and developing the technic of leadership by the teacher in 
group activity. Certain of the chapters have begun the preparation 
cf a State Manual for the use of Americanization teachers. 

MOVEMENT INVOLVES WHOLE STATE. 

How ripe was the hour for the development of community organiza¬ 
tion is shown by the fact that practically all of the steps above described 
have taken place within seven months’ time. The staff of the State 
Committee for Americanization consists of but six persons. Only 
through generous cooperation by agencies, public and private, and by 
groups of many sorts could the results have been attained, and this 
cooperation has been forthcoming from every possible quarter. 

Community organization in our national tradition goes back to the 
town meeting of colonial days. Today the town meeting must be 
adapted to the manifold work of the state and of social enterprise other 
than official, and its appeal must be enriched through the modern 
technics of health work, recreation, art, civic discussion and public 
education for young and old alike. Laboratories of method, and the 
constant training of leadership, are essential conditions of success. 
When they are established, an Americanization work which at the 
beginning reaches thousands will quickly grow until millions are 
reached, and reached with a profound influence. Such a multiplication 
of results is believed to be ahead in the State of California during the 
next year. 

3929 6-20 5000 


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